Efficient method and system for the acquisition of scene imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure is directed towards methods and systems for capturing images of an iris and a scene using a single image sensor. An image sensor may capture a view of a scene and a view of an iris in at least one image. An image processing module may apply a level of noise reduction to a first portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the scene. The image processing module may apply a reduced level of noise reduction to a second portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the iris for use in biometric identification.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of, and claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/398,562, filed Feb. 16, 2012, titled “EFFICIENT METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE ACQUISITION OF SCENE IMAGERY AND IRIS IMAGERY USING A SINGLE SENSOR”, which in turn claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.: 61/443,757, filed Feb. 17, 2011, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IRIS RECOGNITION AND FACE ACQUISITION” and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.: 61/472,279, filed Apr. 6, 2011, titled “EFFICIENT METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE ACQUISITION OF FACE AND IRIS IMAGERY”, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present invention relates to image processing technologies, and more specifically, to systems and methods for the acquisition of scene imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor.

BACKGROUND

Typically, biometric systems are designed to acquire optimal images by considering specific constraints of the type of biometric in question. If other data is to be acquired (e.g. face or background imagery), then typically different sensors are used since requirements for different types of imagery are very different. However, such an approach adds cost to the overall solution and may also increases the size or footprint of the system.

Adam, et al., US Pat. Publ. 20060050933 aims to address the problem of acquiring data for use in face and iris recognition using one sensor, but does not address the problem of optimizing the image acquisition such that that the data acquired is optimal for each of the face and iris recognition components separately.

Determan, et al., US Pat. Publ. 20080075334 and Saitoh, et al., US Pat. Publ. 20050270386, disclose acquiring face and iris imagery for recognition using a separate sensor for the face and a separate sensor for the iris. Saitoh describes a method for performing iris recognition that includes identifying the position of the iris using a face and iris image, but uses two separate sensors that focus separately on the face and iris respectively and acquires data simultaneously such that user motion is not a concern.

Determan et al., US Pat. Publ. 20080075334 also discusses using one sensor for both the face and iris, but does not address the problems of optimizing image acquisition such that that the data acquired is optimal for each of the face and iris recognition components separately.

Jacobson, et al., in US Pat. Publ. 20070206840 also describes a system that includes acquiring imagery of the face and iris, but does not address the problem of optimizing the image acquisition such that that the data acquired is optimal for each of the face and iris recognition components separately, and does not address how a compact-sized system may be achieved.

SUMMARY

In certain aspects, described herein are methods and systems for acquiring a high quality image of an iris for biometric identification, and a high quality picture of any other scene, such as the face of a person, with a single sensor. Embodiments of these systems and methods may be employed such that imagery is acquired with a single sensor for the purposes of determining or verifying the identity of an individual person using biometric recognition using the iris, as well as for the purposes of acquiring general imagery of scenes such as faces and places. Imagery of the latter type may be typically acquired by a mobile phone user, for example. As such, the methods and systems disclosed may be incorporated into mobile and/or compact devices. The sensor may be a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sensor or another suitable type of image capturing device. The methods and systems may configure or adjust conditions to be near optimal in two acquisition modes, e.g., an iris image acquisition mode and a picture (e.g., non-iris) acquisition mode. In some embodiments, the systems for acquiring such images, embodied in a device for example, may have a significantly reduced physical size or footprint, as compared to devices using multiple sensors for example.

In one aspect, the disclosure describes a method of capturing images of an iris and a scene using a single image sensor. The method may include capturing, by an image sensor, a view of a scene and a view of an iris in at least one image. An image processing module may apply a level of noise reduction to a first portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the scene. The image processing module may apply a reduced level of noise reduction to a second portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the iris for use in biometric identification.

In some embodiments, the image sensor may capture the view of the scene and the view of the iris as separable components within a single image. The image sensor may capture at least one image of the iris while illuminating the iris with infra-red illumination. In certain embodiments, the image sensor may activate a plurality of sensor nodes of the image sensor. A first subset of the sensor nodes may be adapted primarily for capturing an image of the iris suitable for biometric identification. A second subset of the sensor nodes may be adapted primarily for capturing a non-iris image.

In certain embodiments, the image processing module may apply noise reduction comprising an averaging or median function. The image processing module may apply noise reduction comprising reducing both time-varying and time-invariant noise from a captured image. The image processing module may subtract noise from one image of the iris with noise from another image of the iris. In certain embodiments, the image processing module may reduce ambient noise in one image using ambient noise from another image. The image processing module may reduce ambient noise from one image captured in the presence of infra-red illumination, using ambient noise from another image captured without infra-red illumination. The image processing module may perform gain or brightness control on the second portion of the at least one image, to produce the image of the iris for use in biometric identification.

In another aspect, the disclosure describes an apparatus for capturing images of an iris and a scene using a single image sensor. The apparatus may include an image sensor and an image processing module. The image sensor may capture a view of a scene and a view of an iris in at least one image. The image processing module may apply a level of noise reduction to a first portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the scene. The image processing module may apply a reduced level of noise reduction to a second portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the iris for use in biometric identification.

In some embodiments, the image sensor captures the view of the scene and the view of the iris as separable components within a single image. The image sensor may comprise a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sensor, for example. The image sensor may include a plurality of sensor nodes, a first subset of the sensor nodes adapted primarily for capturing an image of the iris suitable for biometric identification, a second subset of the sensor nodes adapted primarily for capturing a non-iris image. In certain embodiments, the apparatus includes an illuminator for illuminating the iris with infra-red illumination, wherein the image sensor captures at least one image of the illuminated iris.

In some embodiments, the noise reduction performed includes application of an averaging or median function to a captured image. The noise reduction may include reducing both time-varying and time-invariant noise from a captured image. In certain embodiments, the image processing module subtracts noise from one image of the iris with noise from another image of the iris. The image processing module may reduce ambient noise from one image captured in the presence of infra-red illumination, using ambient noise from another image captured without infra-red illumination. In some embodiments, the image processing module performs gain or brightness control on the second portion of the at least one image, to produce the image of the iris for use in biometric identification.

Certain embodiments of the methods and systems disclosed herein may addresses various challenges in acquiring high quality images of a scene, as well as high quality images of the iris with a single sensor. For example, one challenge perhaps unexpectedly relates to the management of the noise properties of the sensor. We have found that the requirements for quality images for iris recognition and standard scenes sometimes conflict with respect to noise. Noise can be of great concern since pixel sizes of imagers are becoming smaller and smaller, and thus the fundamental noise levels at each pixel is increasing or becoming more pronounced. We determine that certain types of noise may actually be preferable or tolerable for iris recognition, for example, as compared to the quality of iris images acquired in standard picture taking modes that incorporates noise reduction. As such, we may prefer, perhaps counter-intuitively, to retain noise in processed imagery during the acquisition of iris imagery, in order to improve the performance of iris identification compared to images that have undergone typical noise reduction.

Another challenge relates to the wavelength of the illumination required for standard imagery and for iris imagery. Acquisition of Iris imagery typically uses infra-red illumination, while standard imagery typically depends on visible illumination. These may be viewed as conflicting constraints if incorporated into a single system for acquisition of both types of images. This disclosure describes several approaches for resolving this. For example and in one embodiments, different filters may be interleaved in front of the sensor. The filters may have different responses to the infra-red and visible responses. RGB (red, green, blue) filters and filter patterns may be adapted for use in different embodiments. For example, and in certain embodiments, the systems and methods may interleave filters that passes infra-red with other filters that are primarily for passing color imagery. Examples of this approach are in U.S. Pat. Pub. 2007/0145273, and U.S. Pat. Pub 2007/0024931. An improvement upon these approaches includes using a R,G,(G+I),B interleaved array (where I represents Infra-red). Such an approach may have the advantage of maintaining or recovering full resolution of the G (green) signal to which the human visual system is most sensitive. Another embodiment of the methods and systems addresses this challenge by using a removable or retractable IR-cut filter that may be automatically or manually positioned in front of the sensor during standard image acquisition mode. In still another embodiment, the systems and methods may overlay an IR-cut filter over only a portion of the image sensor that is dedicated to iris recognition.

Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein may address a third challenge, which relates to corruption of imagery from ambient illumination. In some embodiments where the infra-red filtering or illumination is not optimal, images of a surrounding scene can be observed reflected off the cornea or eye surface during acquisition of iris imagery. This can sometimes severely impact the performance of iris recognition. Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein may acquire at least two images. One of the images may be captured with controlled infra-red illumination turned on, and at least a second image captured with controlled infra-red illumination turned off. An image processing module may process these at least two images to reduce or remove the artifacts. By way of illustration, the image processing module may align the images and then subtract the images from each other to remove the artifacts. Since the artifactual illumination or components are essentially unchanged between the two images, whereas the iris texture is illuminated by the infra-red illumination and exposed in one image, a difference of the images may remove the artifacts while retaining the iris texture. The methods and systems may overcome non-linearities in the sensor by identifying pixels that are close to or at the non-linear operating range of the sensor (for example, saturated or dark) and eliminate those from subsequent iris recognition processing, since the image subtraction process in those regions can be non-linear and artifacts could still remain. In another embodiment of the methods, we can manage corruption of images by exploiting particular geometrical constraints of the position of the user, a device and the source of the corruption. In certain embodiments, we may take advantage of the fact that the user may hold the device in front of their face during iris acquisition mode, thereby reducing or even blocking the source of corrupting ambient illumination in one sector of the acquired iris imagery. The methods and systems can, for example, limit iris recognition to this sector, thereby avoiding the issues related to image corruption.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following figures depict certain illustrative embodiments of the methods and systems described herein, where like reference numerals refer to like elements. Each depicted embodiment is illustrative of these methods and systems and not limiting.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrative of an embodiment of a networked environment with a client machine that communicates with a server;

FIGS. 1B and 1C are block diagrams illustrative of embodiments of computing machines for practicing the methods and systems described herein;

FIG. 2 depicts an embodiment of an image intensity profile corresponding to a portion of an image;

FIG. 3A depicts an image intensity profile of one embodiment of non-systematic noise;

FIG. 3B depicts an image intensity profile of one embodiment of systematic noise;

FIG. 4 depicts an image intensity profile of one embodiment of systematic noise;

FIG. 5 depicts an image intensity profile of one embodiment of sporadic noise;

FIG. 6 depicts an embodiment of an image intensity profile corresponding to a portion of an image that have undergone noise reduction;

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an embodiment of an image of a view of a face including iris texture;

FIG. 8 depicts one embodiment of an image intensity profile representing iris texture;

FIG. 9 depicts one embodiment of an image intensity profile representing iris texture after noise reduction;

FIG. 10 depicts one embodiment of an image intensity profile representing iris texture and noise;

FIG. 11 depicts one embodiment of a system for acquisition of scene imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 12 depicts a chart showing the effect of noise on acquired images;

FIG. 13 depicts another embodiment of a system for acquisition of scene imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 14 depicts an embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 15 depicts a response profile based on a dual band-pass filter;

FIG. 16 depicts an embodiment of a configuration of interleaved filters;

FIG. 17 depicts one embodiment of an image with artifacts reflected off an eye surface;

FIG. 18 depicts one embodiment of an image with iris texture and artifacts reflected off an eye surface;

FIG. 19 depicts yet another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 20 depicts one embodiment of an image showing iris texture with artifacts removed;

FIG. 21 depicts one scenario for acquisition of face and iris imagery;

FIG. 22 depicts another embodiment of an image with iris texture and artifacts reflected off an eye surface;

FIG. 23 depicts still another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 24 depicts another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 25 depicts one embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor and a mirror;

FIG. 26 depicts one embodiment of a method for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor and a mirror;

FIG. 27 depicts an effect of ocular dominance on the acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery;

FIG. 28 depicts another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor and a mirror;

FIGS. 29 and 30 depict the effect of ocular dominance on the acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery;

FIG. 31 depicts yet another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor and a mirror;

FIG. 32 depicts embodiments of sensor and mirror configuration;

FIG. 33 depicts another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor and a mirror;

FIG. 34 depicts still another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor and a mirror;

FIG. 35 depicts another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 36 depicts yet another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor;

FIG. 37 depicts still another embodiment of a system for acquisition of face imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor; and

FIG. 38 is a flow diagram illustrative of one embodiment of a method for acquisition of scene imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Before addressing other aspects of the systems and methods for acquisition of scene imagery and iris imagery using a single sensor, a description of system components and features suitable for use in the present systems and methods may be helpful. FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a computing environment 101 that includes one or more client machines 102A-102N (generally referred to herein as “client machine(s) 102”) in communication with one or more servers 106A-106N (generally referred to herein as “server(s) 106”). Installed in between the client machine(s) 102 and server(s) 106 is a network.

In one embodiment, the computing environment 101 can include an appliance installed between the server(s) 106 and client machine(s) 102. This appliance can mange client/server connections, and in some cases can load balance client connections amongst a plurality of backend servers. The client machine(s) 102 can in some embodiment be referred to as a single client machine 102 or a single group of client machines 102, while server(s) 106 may be referred to as a single server 106 or a single group of servers 106. In one embodiment a single client machine 102 communicates with more than one server 106, while in another embodiment a single server 106 communicates with more than one client machine 102. In yet another embodiment, a single client machine 102 communicates with a single server 106.

A client machine 102 can, in some embodiments, be referenced by any one of the following terms: client machine(s) 102; client(s); client computer(s); client device(s); client computing device(s); local machine; remote machine; client node(s); endpoint(s); endpoint node(s); or a second machine. The server 106, in some embodiments, may be referenced by any one of the following terms: server(s), local machine; remote machine; server farm(s), host computing device(s), or a first machine(s).

The client machine 102 can in some embodiments execute, operate or otherwise provide an application that can be any one of the following: software; a program; executable instructions; a virtual machine; a hypervisor; a web browser; a web-based client; a client-server application; a thin-client computing client; an ActiveX control; a Java applet; software related to voice over internet protocol (VoIP) communications like a soft IP telephone; an application for streaming video and/or audio; an application for facilitating real-time-data communications; a HTTP client; a FTP client; an Oscar client; a Telnet client; or any other set of executable instructions. Still other embodiments include a client device 102 that displays application output generated by an application remotely executing on a server 106 or other remotely located machine. In these embodiments, the client device 102 can display the application output in an application window, a browser, or other output window. In one embodiment, the application is a desktop, while in other embodiments the application is an application that generates a desktop.

The computing environment 101 can include more than one server 106A-106N such that the servers 106A-106N are logically grouped together into a server farm 106. The server farm 106 can include servers 106 that are geographically dispersed and logically grouped together in a server farm 106, or servers 106 that are located proximate to each other and logically grouped together in a server farm 106. Geographically dispersed servers 106A-106N within a server farm 106 can, in some embodiments, communicate using a WAN, MAN, or LAN, where different geographic regions can be characterized as: different continents; different regions of a continent; different countries; different states; different cities; different campuses; different rooms; or any combination of the preceding geographical locations. In some embodiments the server farm 106 may be administered as a single entity, while in other embodiments the server farm 106 can include multiple server farms 106.

In some embodiments, a server farm 106 can include servers 106 that execute a substantially similar type of operating system platform (e.g., WINDOWS NT, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., UNIX, LINUX, or SNOW LEOPARD.) In other embodiments, the server farm 106 can include a first group of servers 106 that execute a first type of operating system platform, and a second group of servers 106 that execute a second type of operating system platform. The server farm 106, in other embodiments, can include servers 106 that execute different types of operating system platforms.

The server 106, in some embodiments, can be any server type. In other embodiments, the server 106 can be any of the following server types: a file server; an application server; a web server; a proxy server; an appliance; a network appliance; a gateway; an application gateway; a gateway server; a virtualization server; a deployment server; a SSL VPN server; a firewall; a web server; an application server or as a master application server; a server 106 executing an active directory; or a server 106 executing an application acceleration program that provides firewall functionality, application functionality, or load balancing functionality. In some embodiments, a server 106 may be a RADIUS server that includes a remote authentication dial-in user service. Some embodiments include a first server 106A that receives requests from a client machine 102, forwards the request to a second server 106B, and responds to the request generated by the client machine 102 with a response from the second server 106B. The first server 106A can acquire an enumeration of applications available to the client machine 102 and well as address information associated with an application server 106 hosting an application identified within the enumeration of applications. The first server 106A can then present a response to the client's request using a web interface, and communicate directly with the client 102 to provide the client 102 with access to an identified application.

Client machines 102 can, in some embodiments, be a client node that seeks access to resources provided by a server 106. In other embodiments, the server 106 may provide clients 102 or client nodes with access to hosted resources. The server 106, in some embodiments, functions as a master node such that it communicates with one or more clients 102 or servers 106. In some embodiments, the master node can identify and provide address information associated with a server 106 hosting a requested application, to one or more clients 102 or servers 106. In still other embodiments, the master node can be a server farm 106, a client 102, a cluster of client nodes 102, or an appliance.

One or more clients 102 and/or one or more servers 106 can transmit data over a network 104 installed between machines and appliances within the computing environment 101. The network 104 can comprise one or more sub-networks, and can be installed between any combination of the clients 102, servers 106, computing machines and appliances included within the computing environment 101. In some embodiments, the network 104 can be: a local-area network (LAN); a metropolitan area network (MAN); a wide area network (WAN); a primary network 104 comprised of multiple sub-networks 104 located between the client machines 102 and the servers 106; a primary public network 104 with a private sub-network 104; a primary private network 104 with a public sub-network 104; or a primary private network 104 with a private sub-network 104. Still further embodiments include a network 104 that can be any of the following network types: a point to point network; a broadcast network; a telecommunications network; a data communication network; a computer network; an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network; a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) network; a SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network; a wireless network; a wireline network; or a network 104 that includes a wireless link where the wireless link can be an infrared channel or satellite band. The network topology of the network 104 can differ within different embodiments, possible network topologies include: a bus network topology; a star network topology; a ring network topology; a repeater-based network topology; or a tiered-star network topology. Additional embodiments may include a network 104 of mobile telephone networks that use a protocol to communicate among mobile devices, where the protocol can be any one of the following: AMPS; TDMA; CDMA; GSM; GPRS UMTS; 3G; 4G; or any other protocol able to transmit data among mobile devices.

Illustrated in FIG. 1B is an embodiment of a computing device 100, where the client machine 102 and server 106 illustrated in FIG. 1A can be deployed as and/or executed on any embodiment of the computing device 100 illustrated and described herein. Included within the computing device 100 is a system bus 150 that communicates with the following components: a central processing unit 121; a main memory 122; storage memory 128; an input/output (I/O) controller 123; display devices 124A-124N; an installation device 116; and a network interface 118. In one embodiment, the storage memory 128 includes: an operating system, software routines, and a client agent 120. The I/O controller 123, in some embodiments, is further connected to a key board 126, and a pointing device 127. Other embodiments may include an I/O controller 123 connected to more than one input/output device 130A-130N.

FIG. 1C illustrates one embodiment of a computing device 100, where the client machine 102 and server 106 illustrated in FIG. 1A can be deployed as and/or executed on any embodiment of the computing device 100 illustrated and described herein. Included within the computing device 100 is a system bus 150 that communicates with the following components: a bridge 170, and a first I/O device 130A. In another embodiment, the bridge 170 is in further communication with the main central processing unit 121, where the central processing unit 121 can further communicate with a second I/O device 130B, a main memory 122, and a cache memory 140. Included within the central processing unit 121, are I/O ports, a memory port 103, and a main processor.

Embodiments of the computing machine 100 can include a central processing unit 121 characterized by any one of the following component configurations: logic circuits that respond to and process instructions fetched from the main memory unit 122; a microprocessor unit, such as: those manufactured by Intel Corporation; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation; those manufactured by Transmeta Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.; the RS/6000 processor such as those manufactured by International Business Machines; a processor such as those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices; or any other combination of logic circuits. Still other embodiments of the central processing unit 122 may include any combination of the following: a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a central processing unit with a single processing core, a central processing unit with two processing cores, or a central processing unit with more than one processing core.

While FIG. 1C illustrates a computing device 100 that includes a single central processing unit 121, in some embodiments the computing device 100 can include one or more processing units 121. In these embodiments, the computing device 100 may store and execute firmware or other executable instructions that, when executed, direct the one or more processing units 121 to simultaneously execute instructions or to simultaneously execute instructions on a single piece of data. In other embodiments, the computing device 100 may store and execute firmware or other executable instructions that, when executed, direct the one or more processing units to each execute a section of a group of instructions. For example, each processing unit 121 may be instructed to execute a portion of a program or a particular module within a program.

In some embodiments, the processing unit 121 can include one or more processing cores. For example, the processing unit 121 may have two cores, four cores, eight cores, etc. In one embodiment, the processing unit 121 may comprise one or more parallel processing cores. The processing cores of the processing unit 121 may in some embodiments access available memory as a global address space, or in other embodiments, memory within the computing device 100 can be segmented and assigned to a particular core within the processing unit 121. In one embodiment, the one or more processing cores or processors in the computing device 100 can each access local memory. In still another embodiment, memory within the computing device 100 can be shared amongst one or more processors or processing cores, while other memory can be accessed by particular processors or subsets of processors. In embodiments where the computing device 100 includes more than one processing unit, the multiple processing units can be included in a single integrated circuit (IC). These multiple processors, in some embodiments, can be linked together by an internal high speed bus, which may be referred to as an element interconnect bus.

In embodiments where the computing device 100 includes one or more processing units 121, or a processing unit 121 including one or more processing cores, the processors can execute a single instruction simultaneously on multiple pieces of data (SIMD), or in other embodiments can execute multiple instructions simultaneously on multiple pieces of data (MIMD). In some embodiments, the computing device 100 can include any number of SIMD and MIMD processors.

The computing device 100, in some embodiments, can include an image processor, a graphics processor or a graphics processing unit. The graphics processing unit can include any combination of software and hardware, and can further input graphics data and graphics instructions, render a graphic from the inputted data and instructions, and output the rendered graphic. In some embodiments, the graphics processing unit can be included within the processing unit 121. In other embodiments, the computing device 100 can include one or more processing units 121, where at least one processing unit 121 is dedicated to processing and rendering graphics.

One embodiment of the computing machine 100 includes a central processing unit 121 that communicates with cache memory 140 via a secondary bus also known as a backside bus, while another embodiment of the computing machine 100 includes a central processing unit 121 that communicates with cache memory via the system bus 150. The local system bus 150 can, in some embodiments, also be used by the central processing unit to communicate with more than one type of I/O device 130A-130N. In some embodiments, the local system bus 150 can be any one of the following types of buses: a VESA VL bus; an ISA bus; an EISA bus; a MicroChannel Architecture (MCA) bus; a PCI bus; a PCI-X bus; a PCI-Express bus; or a NuBus. Other embodiments of the computing machine 100 include an I/O device 130A-130N that is a video display 124 that communicates with the central processing unit 121. Still other versions of the computing machine 100 include a processor 121 connected to an I/O device 130A-130N via any one of the following connections: HyperTransport, Rapid I/O, or InfiniBand. Further embodiments of the computing machine 100 include a processor 121 that communicates with one I/O device 130A using a local interconnect bus and a second I/O device 130B using a direct connection.

The computing device 100, in some embodiments, includes a main memory unit 122 and cache memory 140. The cache memory 140 can be any memory type, and in some embodiments can be any one of the following types of memory: SRAM; BSRAM; or EDRAM. Other embodiments include cache memory 140 and a main memory unit 122 that can be any one of the following types of memory: Static random access memory (SRAM), Burst SRAM or SynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM); Dynamic random access memory (DRAM); Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPM DRAM); Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM (EDO RAM); Extended Data Output DRAM (EDO DRAM); Burst Extended Data Output DRAM (BEDO DRAM); Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM); synchronous DRAM (SDRAM); JEDEC SRAM; PC100 SDRAM; Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM); Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM); SyncLink DRAM (SLDRAM); Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM); Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM); or any other type of memory. Further embodiments include a central processing unit 121 that can access the main memory 122 via: a system bus 150; a memory port 103; or any other connection, bus or port that allows the processor 121 to access memory 122.

One embodiment of the computing device 100 provides support for any one of the following installation devices 116: a CD-ROM drive, a CD-R/RW drive, a DVD-ROM drive, tape drives of various formats, USB device, a bootable medium, a bootable CD, a bootable CD for GNU/Linux distribution such as KNOPPIX®, a hard-drive or any other device suitable for installing applications or software. Applications can in some embodiments include a client agent 120, or any portion of a client agent 120. The computing device 100 may further include a storage device 128 that can be either one or more hard disk drives, or one or more redundant arrays of independent disks; where the storage device is configured to store an operating system, software, programs applications, or at least a portion of the client agent 120. A further embodiment of the computing device 100 includes an installation device 116 that is used as the storage device 128.

The computing device 100 may further include a network interface 118 to interface to a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) or the Internet through a variety of connections including, but not limited to, standard telephone lines, LAN or WAN links (e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, 56 kb, X.25, SNA, DECNET), broadband connections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet, Ethernet-over-SONET), wireless connections, or some combination of any or all of the above. Connections can also be established using a variety of communication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, IPX, SPX, NetBIOS, Ethernet, ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), RS232, RS485, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, CDMA, GSM, WiMax and direct asynchronous connections). One version of the computing device 100 includes a network interface 118 able to communicate with additional computing devices 100′ via any type and/or form of gateway or tunneling protocol such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS), or the Citrix Gateway Protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. Versions of the network interface 118 can comprise any one of: a built-in network adapter; a network interface card; a PCMCIA network card; a card bus network adapter; a wireless network adapter; a USB network adapter; a modem; or any other device suitable for interfacing the computing device 100 to a network capable of communicating and performing the methods and systems described herein.

Embodiments of the computing device 100 include any one of the following I/O devices 130A-130N: a keyboard 126; a pointing device 127; mice; trackpads; an optical pen; trackballs; microphones; drawing tablets; video displays; speakers; inkjet printers; laser printers; and dye-sublimation printers; or any other input/output device able to perform the methods and systems described herein. An I/O controller 123 may in some embodiments connect to multiple I/O devices 103A-130N to control the one or more I/O devices. Some embodiments of the I/O devices 130A-130N may be configured to provide storage or an installation medium 116, while others may provide a universal serial bus (USB) interface for receiving USB storage devices such as the USB Flash Drive line of devices manufactured by Twintech Industry, Inc. Still other embodiments include an I/O device 130 that may be a bridge between the system bus 150 and an external communication bus, such as: a USB bus; an Apple Desktop Bus; an RS-232 serial connection; a SCSI bus; a FireWire bus; a FireWire 800 bus; an Ethernet bus; an AppleTalk bus; a Gigabit Ethernet bus; an Asynchronous Transfer Mode bus; a HIPPI bus; a Super HIPPI bus; a SerialPlus bus; a SCI/LAMP bus; a FibreChannel bus; or a Serial Attached small computer system interface bus.

In some embodiments, the computing machine 100 can execute any operating system, while in other embodiments the computing machine 100 can execute any of the following operating systems: versions of the MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems; the different releases of the Unix and Linux operating systems; any version of the MAC OS manufactured by Apple Computer; OS/2, manufactured by International Business Machines; Android by Google; any embedded operating system; any real-time operating system; any open source operating system; any proprietary operating system; any operating systems for mobile computing devices; or any other operating system. In still another embodiment, the computing machine 100 can execute multiple operating systems. For example, the computing machine 100 can execute PARALLELS or another virtualization platform that can execute or manage a virtual machine executing a first operating system, while the computing machine 100 executes a second operating system different from the first operating system.

The computing machine 100 can be embodied in any one of the following computing devices: a computing workstation; a desktop computer; a laptop or notebook computer; a server; a handheld computer; a mobile telephone; a portable telecommunication device; a media playing device; a gaming system; a mobile computing device; a netbook, a tablet; a device of the IPOD or IPAD family of devices manufactured by Apple Computer; any one of the PLAYSTATION family of devices manufactured by the Sony Corporation; any one of the Nintendo family of devices manufactured by Nintendo Co; any one of the XBOX family of devices manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation; or any other type and/or form of computing, telecommunications or media device that is capable of communication and that has sufficient processor power and memory capacity to perform the methods and systems described herein. In other embodiments the computing machine 100 can be a mobile device such as any one of the following mobile devices: a JAVA-enabled cellular telephone or personal digital assistant (PDA); any computing device that has different processors, operating systems, and input devices consistent with the device; or any other mobile computing device capable of performing the methods and systems described herein. In still other embodiments, the computing device 100 can be any one of the following mobile computing devices: any one series of Blackberry, or other handheld device manufactured by Research In Motion Limited; the iPhone manufactured by Apple Computer; Palm Pre; a Pocket PC; a Pocket PC Phone; an Android phone; or any other handheld mobile device. Having described certain system components and features that may be suitable for use in the present systems and methods, further aspects are addressed below.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative image of a typical scene or object (e.g., house), acquired by a typical image sensor. An image sensor may include, for example, a digital charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor, although not limited to these. The graph or intensity profile corresponding to the image shows, for a cross sectional region indicated by line P2, the intensity value I of pixels on the vertical axis and the corresponding spatial position X. Bright and dark points in the intensity profile correspond to bright and dark points in the image as shown. Typically, there may be substantial noise in the signal, represented by fluctuations in intensity even within uniformly illuminated areas (e.g., regions corresponding to the door of the house). Noise may be derived from several sources, for example amplifier noise and shot-noise, anisotropic (systematic) noise, and sporadic noise. Shot noise relates to the quantum effect of having a finite number of photons being collected in a particular pixel-well in a finite period of time. The smaller the pixel size, the larger the shot noise may result. This is because there may be fewer photons from which to infer a measurement of incident illumination. As pixel dimensions get smaller, the focal length of associated optics for a given image resolution may also drop linearly. This may reduce the thickness of the lens/sensor component combination. However, as requirements for sensor resolution increase, and as space constraints for sensors and their associated optics become tighter, sensor and image pixel sizes have to be correspondingly reduced to accommodate the requirements and constraints. A result of the reduction in pixel size is a substantial increase in noise in the sensor. This type of noise, as well as amplifier noise, may be characterized as being time-varying, and non-systematic as depicted in FIG. 3A.

Another type of noise is anisotropic, or systematic/periodic noise. Periodic noise can be caused, for example, by differences in amplifier gains in the read-out path of the image sensor. For example, different rows and columns may pass through different amplifiers with slightly different gains. This type of systematic noise is depicted in FIG. 3B, where an intensity profile that should be uniformly flat is in fact fluctuating periodically in one dimension (e.g., across an image). FIG. 4 depicts an example of sporadic noise introduced into an image, which may be evident across multiple images. For example, occasional pixels in an array of sensor nodes may have degraded sensitivity, is non-functional or have limited or excessive gain, resulting in pixels that are brighter or darker as shown.

Problems arising from noise are typically addressed by performing noise reduction in an image processing module 220. The image processing module 220 may employ any type of spatial median filtering or region-selective averaging, as depicted in FIG. 5. There are many methods for performing noise reduction, and we identify median filtering and region-selective averaging merely for illustration. FIG. 6 depicts an intensity profile which may result from noise reduction. Although noise reduction may have essentially removed the noise, the image processing module 220 maintained features (e.g. bright and dark points) corresponding to actual objects and edges in the scene. From a user's perspective, the image quality is typically unacceptable in FIG. 1 (e.g., noisy), whereas that in FIG. 6 is considered of better quality.

FIG. 7 depicts an image of an iris I1 and a face F1. The image may be acquired using an optimal iris image acquisition system, for example, according to specifications described in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. These specifications may include that described in ANSI/INCITS 379-2004, Iris Image Interchange Format. Referring to FIG. 7, the texture of the iris is represented by the lines inside the circular region indicated by I1. FIG. 8 depicts one representation of the intensity profile of the iris' texture. In some embodiments, the similarity between FIG. 8 (intensity profile of iris texture pattern) and FIG. 2 (intensity profile of noise signal) can be quite apparent. A reason for such similarity is that the source of each signal/pattern is characterized by a random process. In the case of the iris, the signal is created by the tearing of iris tissue before birth, much like the process by which a paper tear is different each time it occurs. In the case of sensor noise, shot noise and other noises are created by random time-varying physical processes.

Frequency characteristics of the iris signal “texture” has been characterized to some degree in NIST standards [ANSI/INCITS 379-2004, Iris Image Interchange Format], for example, the minimum resolution values corresponding to line/pairs per millimeter (mm) may be designated for different iris diameter ranges. The iris diameter may be dependent on a particular optical configuration. By way of illustration, for an iris diameter between 100-149 pixels, the defined pixel resolution may be a minimum of 8.3 pixels per mm, with an optical resolution at 60% modulation of a minimum of 2.0 line-pairs per mm. For an iris diameter between 150-199 pixels, the defined pixel resolution may be a minimum of 12.5 pixels per mm with an optical resolution at 60% modulation of a minimum of 3.0 line-pairs per mm. For an iris diameter with 200 or more pixels, the defined pixel resolution may be a minimum of 16.7 pixels per mm, with an optical resolution at 60% modulation of a minimum of 4.0 line-pairs per mm. Other diameter, defined pixel resolution and/or optical resolution combinations may be suitable in certain embodiments.

FIG. 9 depicts an intensity profile of iris texture after undergoing some of the noise reduction processing described above. In this illustrative case, iris texture are essentially removed by the noise reduction. This is because the noise reduction algorithms, such as region-specific averaging, may be unable to differentiate between iris texture and noise. As such, noise reduction, which is standard or typical in most image-capturing devices, can be a limitation when adapted to perform iris recognition.

The present systems and methods can address this problem by recognizing particular characteristics related to iris recognition. FIG. 10 illustrates, in one embodiment, an intensity profile of iris texture acquired optimally (for example as in NIST standards [ANSI/INCITS 379-2004, Iris Image Interchange Format]), together with an intensity profile of sensor noise in dotted lines. Certain iris recognition processes involve identifying the lack of statistical independence between an enrolled signal and a probe signal. One significance may be that a match is typically declared by a comparison yielding a result that is unlikely to be achieved by a random process. As such, adding significant random and time-varying noise to a pristine iris signal may therefore: 1) not significantly increase the false match rate since false matches result from non-random matching, 2) may have limited impact on the false rejection rate for an individual if the texture of the iris signal generally or essentially exceeds that of the sensor noise (e.g., even if the images themselves appear noisy to an observer), and 3) may increase the false reject rate for the user (with limited other consequences) if the texture of the iris signal has a similar or lesser magnitude compared to the magnitude of the sensor noise.

Adding systematic noise, however, to the pristine iris signal, as shown in FIG. 3 for example, could trigger a false match because a comparison between two data sets could yield a result that would not have been achieved by a random process. As such, certain embodiments of the methods and systems may prefer (e.g., counter-intuitively) the presence of noise (e.g., even significant levels of noise) in a captured iris image, to improve performance in iris identification as compared to images having reduced noise levels (e.g., through noise reduction). In some embodiments, the present systems may reduce or eliminate the level of non-systematic noise reduction applied to an image when the image is meant for iris recognition. The resultant images may potentially appear extremely noisy to an observer as compared to a processed imagery (e.g., with noise reduction applied). However, the performance in iris recognition may be significantly improved if a noisy imagery is used instead for iris recognition. In some particular hardware implementations, noise reduction algorithms are enabled and hard-coded, and may not be turned off. Some embodiments of the present methods and systems allow control over noise reduction algorithms so as to avoid reducing noise in frequency bands expected for iris texture, as described elsewhere in the specification.

FIG. 11 depicts an example implementation of an approach whereby a main processor may control an image signal processor, e.g., a low-level image signal processor. In a mode in which iris recognition is performed, a signal may transmitted to the image signal processor to modify the noise reduction process as described earlier. Depending on the magnitude of systematic noise, then such noise may be removed (e.g., using dynamic row calibration whereby pixels at an edge of the sensor are covered and can be used for sensor calibration) or can be left untouched if the magnitude of the noise is substantially smaller than the signal magnitude of iris texture. By way of illustration, FIG. 12 shows a table summarizing a number of scenarios, and describes how different types of noise may affect the performance of iris recognition and/or the quality of visible imagery, in different image acquisition modes.

Another challenge relating to acquiring optimal standard scene imagery and iris imagery on the same sensor relates to the wavelength of the illumination required for standard imagery and for iris imagery. Iris imagery typically requires infra-red illumination, while standard imagery typically requires visible illumination. There are sometimes conflicting constraints. Some embodiments of the present systems may be configured to address this by interleaving filters having different responses to infra-red and visible light. These systems may use one of a plurality of different configurations of such filters against an image sensor, when capturing an image. One example of a filter that may be incorporated or modified to produce an interleaved filter is one having a Bayer RGB (red, green, blue) filter pattern (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,065). Filters that (primarily, significantly or only) pass infra-red may be interleaved with other filters that (primarily, significantly or only) passes colored or visible light. Some embodiments of filters that provide selected filtering are described in U.S. Pat. Pub. 20070145273, and U.S. Pat. Pub. 20070024931. Some embodiments of the present system and methods use a R,G,(G+I),B interleaved array instead. Some of these systems have the ability to maintain full (or substantially full) resolution of the G (green) signal to which the human visual system is typically most sensitive.

In iris recognition mode, the magnitude of the G (green) response is typically much less than that of the infra-red response due to incident infra-red illumination. In some embodiments, an estimate of the infra-red signal response (I) in iris recognition mode can be recovered by subtracting the (G) signal from the adjacent (G+I) signal. In standard image acquisition mode, the R,G,(G+I),B signal may be processed to recover an estimate G′ of G in the pixel in which G+I was recovered. Various methods may be used for generating such estimates, such as when an R,G,T,B pixel array is used, where T is totally transparent. The T pixel in such an implementation may contain signals of the R,G,B and I signals accumulated or superimposed together. This can be problematic. If the T pixel filter is truly transparent, then for effective performance, the sum of the R,G,B,I responses must still lie within the dynamic range of the pixel. For a given integration time and pixel area throughout an entire imager, this means that the dynamic range of the R,G,B pixels cannot be fully utilized since saturation of the T pixel (R+G+B+I) could occur. Setting different pixel areas or gain for the T pixel compared to the other R,G,B pixels may be possible but may be expensive to implement. One improvement, which may be incorporated into the present systems, is to use a neutral density filter in place of the transparent filter. The neutral density filter may reduce the magnitude of the illumination of all wavelengths (R,G,B and I) at that pixel, and may allow a full or wide range of pixel capacities to be exploited in the R,G,B pixels, thereby reducing noise. A neutral density filter with value of 0.5 to 0.6 can be selected as an example. A green signal may typically contribute to approximately 60% of a luminance signal comprised of R,G and B combined together.

If a T filter is truly transparent, the overall dynamic range of the sensor will typically need to be reduced to accommodate the range of the T pixel and maintain it to be within a linear range, at the expense of the signal to noise ratio of the R,G,B pixels. By incorporating a R,G,G+I,B filter array in some embodiments of our systems, and since red and blue signals are not present in the G+I pixel, the overall dynamic range of the sensor may be increased compared to that of a R,G,T,B array, thereby increasing the signal to noise ratio.

Another approach incorporated in some embodiments of our methods and systems for acquiring optimal standard scene imagery and iris imagery on the same sensor, relating to the wavelength of the illumination, involves multiplexing or positioning an infra-red cut filter over a standard image sensor or lens. In one embodiment, a portion of the sensor (for example, 20% of the sensor or sensor nodes) may be designated primarily for iris recognition, while the remaining (e.g., 80%) portion may be used for standard image acquisition, for example as shown in FIG. 14. A lower portion (e.g., 80%) of the sensor, as in this example, may be covered by a standard IR-cut filter. The remaining 20% of the sensor may remain uncovered. In iris recognition mode, the covered region may be ignored. For example, an iris recognition application executing on the image capturing device may guide the user to position their eyes within the sensing region of the uncovered 20% area. Feedback mechanisms can guide the user to move the image capturing device to locate the user's irises within an appropriate capture region. For example, since the face will be visible in the remaining 80% of the imager, this can be used for user guidance feedback, optionally with icons appearing in place of the eye region. In some embodiments, the image sensor may adjust its orientation to capture an image of the user's iris using the uncovered region.

Another approach incorporated within some embodiments of the present systems and methods uses a dual band-pass filter over the entire or a substantial portion of a color imager or sensor. Such a filter may pass both R,G,B signals and infra-red signals within select bands, such as bands around 850 nm or 940 nm, and may yield a frequency response as depicted in FIG. 15. In yet another embodiment, an image acquisition system may use an IR-cut filter that can be automatically or manually positioned or slid into place over at least a portion of an image sensor when the device is in standard image capture mode. For example, the IR-cut filter may cover a portion of the image sensor to be aligned with a user's eye for capturing iris imagery. The other portions of the image sensor may capture parts of a user's face, for example. Placement of the IR-cut filter may be at one end of the sensor, thereby allowing the sensor and the correspondingly-captured image to have two distinct regions (IR-cut and non-IR-cut) rather than 3 or more regions (e.g., non-IR-cut, IR-cut and non-IR-cut). This allows a larger and more contiguous non-iris portion of a scene (e.g., face) to be acquired, which may in turn be used for face identification for example. In some embodiments, a visible light filter or IR pass filter may be placed over the image sensor (e.g., optionally) when the device is in iris image capture mode.

In some embodiments, the image acquisition system may interleave infra-red cut and infra-red pass filters across the sensor, for example as shown in FIG. 16. An interleaved filter may be configured in various other ways, such as using a checker-box arrangement, stripes of various widths, or other alternating and/or repeatable patterns. In iris recognition mode, the response from sensor pixels/nodes underneath the IR-pass filter bands is used for iris recognition, while the response from sensor pixels/nodes underneath the IR-cut filter bands is used in standard image acquisition mode. In some embodiments, both standard and iris images may be acquired with a single image capture, for example, by separating IR and non-IR image components corresponding to the interleaving pattern.

In some embodiments, an image acquired by an image sensor may be affected or corrupted by ambient illumination. For example, in some embodiments, where infra-red filtering and/or illumination is not optimal, images of a scene can be reflected off a surface of an eye (e.g., the cornea) during acquisition of iris imagery. An example of this is shown in FIG. 17. The reflection of imagery (e.g., on the cornea of the eye) may be a reflection of a scene comprising houses surrounding the user, as an example. Such reflections may be referred to as artifacts. We have described, above, how systematic noise can severely impact the performance of iris recognition. The artifacts may be overcome using similar methods: acquire at least two images, one with controlled infra-red illumination turned on, as shown in FIG. 18, and at least a second image with controlled infra-red illumination turned off, as shown in FIG. 17. The image processing module can process these at least 2 images to reduce or remove the artifacts. For example and in some embodiments, the image processing module can align the images and then subtract the images from each other, as shown in the processing diagram in FIG. 19. Since the artifactual illumination is essentially unchanged between the two images, whereas the iris texture is illuminated by the infra-red illumination, the artifact may be removed by taking a difference, whereas the iris texture remains. The remaining iris texture is illustrated by the lines within the iris in FIG. 20. The system may further overcome non-linearities in the sensor by, for example, identifying pixels that are close to or at the non-linear operating range of the sensor (for example saturated or dark). The image processing module may eliminate the identified pixels from subsequent iris recognition processing. Since the image subtraction process in those regions may be non-linear, artifacts may still remain using the subtraction approach.

Another embodiment of the present methods manages corruption of images by exploiting particular geometrical constraints of the position of the user, the image-capturing device and the source of the corruption or artifacts. The image processing module may be configured to recognize that as the user holds the image-capturing device in front of the user's face during iris acquisition mode, the image-capturing device may reduce or even block sources of corrupting ambient illumination within one sector of the acquired iris imagery, for example as shown in FIG. 21. The image processing module may limit iris recognition primarily or solely to this sector, thereby avoiding issues related to image corruption, as depicted in FIG. 22. In some embodiments, iris recognition based on this sector of the image may be weighted higher than other sectors in deciding a biometric match.

In some embodiments, infra-red illumination is not readily available or guaranteed during image capture. The image acquisition system 200 may be configured to control and/or provide infra-red illumination. The image acquisition system may reduce power usage by illuminating the infra-red source (e.g., LEDs) when the device is in iris recognition mode, as shown in FIG. 23.

FIG. 24 depicts one embodiment of the image acquisition system 200 using some features of the systems and methods disclosed herein. The image acquisition system 200 may be embodied in a device, such as a mobile and/or compact device. The device may include a screen with a sensor. Infra-red LEDs may provide illumination. A user may use a touch screen or other input device (e.g., keyboard, button or voice command recognition) to switch between iris recognition mode and standard picture-taking mode. The device may include an application, through which a user may activate an image capturing mode. The application may further provide a feedback or guidance mechanism to automatically locate the iris of the user, or guide the user to move the user's iris within a suitable region of capture. In some embodiments, an optional IR-cut filter may be activated or moved over the image sensor, either manually or automatically, when in iris image capture mode. Other filters (e.g., IR-pass filter) may be incorporated and/or activated in the appropriate mode(s). In certain embodiments, certain features of the image acquisition system 200 may be contained in an add-on accessory or sleeve for a mobile or existing device. As an example, such features may include an infra-red illuminator, one or more filters, and/or an interface (e.g., wireless or physical) to the mobile or existing device.

In some embodiments, the image acquisition system 200 may include infra-red illuminators embedded into a screen of the image acquisition system 200, for illuminating a user's eye with infra-red illumination. Screens and displays typically use white LED illumination under an LCD matrix. By adding to or replacing some portion of the visible light LEDs with near infra-red illuminators, a source of IR illumination may be provided by the display itself. In such an embodiment, the image acquisition system 200 may not require an additional fixture or area on the image acquisition system 200 to provide infra-red illumination, thereby saving space.

In certain embodiments, the image acquisition system 200 may include a visible illuminator, for example with two illumination strengths. The visible illuminator may be turned on at low power during iris image acquisition mode. The low power illumination may be chosen so as to not distract or cause discomfort to the user. In some embodiments, brightness level in the low power mode can be at least a factor of 2 darker then the full brightness of the visible illuminator. The latter brightness level may, for example, be used to illuminate a wider scene. The low power visible illuminator may be used to constrict the iris and increase iris area, regardless of whether the user is in the dark or not. However, since the visible illuminator may be close to the eye, some of the filters described above may still pass significant visible light into the sensor. Therefore, in some embodiments, the visible light is turned off before images of the iris is acquired while the near infra-red illuminator turned on. In an alternate embodiment, the screen itself can be used as a source of visible illumination.

In some embodiments, one advantage of using a single sensor in the image acquisition system 200 is that space occupied by the system can be minimized compared to the use of dual sensor. However, in either case, an important consideration is the ability of the user and/or operator to use the single-sensor or dual-sensor device effectively.

In some embodiments, a mirrored surface may be used to help guide an user in aligning the user's iris with a suitable capture zone of the image sensor. A mirrored surface can provide feedback to the user of the user's position, as depicted in FIG. 25, where a user is holding a device in front of them and a virtual image of a portion of the user's face is viewed at twice the distance from the user to the device. However, because of a property of the human visual system, ocular dominance, and the requirements of our iris recognition system, the optimal size of the mirror may not scale linearly with the distance of the user to the mirror as might be expected. In fact, under some conditions, an increase in the size of the mirror to try and improve iris recognition performance may degrade performance or cause difficulty in alignment.

Ocular dominance is a tendency to prefer visual input from one eye or the other. It occurs in most individuals, with ⅔ of individuals having right-eyed dominance and ⅓ of individuals having left-eyed dominance. The present systems and methods address ocular dominance and combine properties of ocular dominance with constraints of iris recognition in order to maximize the size of recovered iris imagery while minimizing the size of a mirror used to guide the user.

FIG. 26 depicts a reflective field of view of a mirror of a size such that both eyes occupy comfortably the field of view. In some embodiments, the width of the mirror is such that at the viewing distance of the image acquisition device 200, the reflective field of view may be at least approximately 50% wider than the reflection of the eye separation. For illustrative purposes, the user is shown in the middle of the mirror. FIG. 27 however shows that in practice, due to ocular dominance, a user typically is positioned to one side of the mirror, such that their dominant eye is closer to the center of the mirror. If the width of the field of view of the mirror is greater than 50% of the field of view of a typical eye separation for users (6.5-7 cm), then the eyes may remain in the field of view. Therefore, both eyes may be acquired by the image acquisition system 200 for people with ocular dominance since both eyes may remain in the field of view of the image sensor in such a case. However, the iris diameter in the captured image may be relatively small since a lens for the sensor is typically chosen to cover a wide field of view.

FIG. 28 depicts, without consideration of ocular dominance, a configuration for acquiring images of both eyes using a smaller mirror. The field of view of the mirror is smaller thereby minimizing its area on any image acquisition system 200. Both eyes may be acquired if the user is positioned in the center of the mirror. However as described above, due to ocular dominance, the user is typically positioned to the right or to the left of this optimal position, as shown in FIGS. 29 and 30. In this scenario, one of the eyes may be out of the field of view of the camera. Thus, although this configuration has a moderately large mirror, and even if the lens may be configured to acquire both eyes (when in a central position), due to ocular dominance, the image acquisition system 200 may only acquire a single eye reliably in practice.

FIG. 31 depicts a design that acquires higher resolution iris imagery compared to FIG. 30 (, i.e., improving iris recognition performance) yet uses a smaller mirror such that only the dominant eye is observed by the user. By limiting the size of the mirror so that only the dominant eye is in the field of view, the tendency for the user's visual system to choose the left or the right eye is forced to be a binary response (e.g., left or right eye), as oppose to a variable or unpredictable response (e.g., eyes shifted to the left or right) in the field of view. In a some embodiments, the image acquisition system 200 may operate or include a mirror with a diameter of about 14 mm at an operating distance of approximately 9″, such that the reflective field of view of the mirror corresponds to approximately 2 typical iris diameters (2×10.5 mm). FIG. 32 summarizes and illustrates the size of the effective field of view of the mirror and its relationship to 1 or 2-eye capture and also the size of the acquired iris imagery.

FIG. 33 depicts one embodiment of the image acquisition system 200 whereby an IR-cut filter is placed over a portion of the sensor. A face or other imagery can be acquired by a portion of the sensor while imagery for iris recognition is acquired by a portion covered by the IR-cut filter. Ocular dominance tends to provide uncertainty in a horizontal direction due to the horizontal configuration of human eyes, and therefore the image acquisition system 200 may be correspondingly configured with a horizontally shaped filter region over the sensor. FIG. 34 depicts another embodiment in which the mirror is tilted such that the user observes the sensor/lens assembly at an angle, and the eyes are close to the top of the sensor rather than in the middle of the sensor. This configuration may allow placement of the IR-cut filter at one end of the sensor, thereby allowing the sensor to have two distinct regions (IR-cut and non-IR-cut) rather than 3 regions (non-IR-cut, IR-cut and non-IR-cut), which is the case illustrated in FIG. 33. This allows a larger and more contiguous non-iris portion of a scene to be acquired.

FIG. 35 shows another embodiment of the image acquisition system 200 whereby an operator may be holding the image acquisition device 200, in order to acquire iris imagery of the user. In this embodiment, there is a see-through guidance channel through which the operator can look to line up with the user's eye. In addition or alternatively, spaced guidance markers can be placed on top of the image acquisition device 200, so that the operator lines up the user's eye with two markers for example. FIG. 36 shows an expanded view of one embodiment of a guidance channel. In this embodiments, circular rings may be printed on the inner portion of the guidance channel, at the back and front of the guidance channel as shown. When the user is aligned, these rings may appear to be concentric to the operator. Otherwise, they will be non-concentric (user's eye is misaligned). FIG. 36 also shows a visible illuminator (LED) on the device, as well as Infra-red illuminators which may used for the purposes of the iris recognition. FIG. 37 depicts another embodiment of the image acquisition system. In this embodiment, the LEDs are controlled by controllers that are in turn connected to a processor that is also connected to the sensor used for iris recognition.

Illustrated in FIG. 38 is one embodiment of a method for capturing images of an iris and a scene using a single image sensor. An image sensor captures a view of a scene and a view of an iris in at least one image (382). An image processing module applies a level of noise reduction to a first portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the scene (384). The image processing module applies a reduced level of noise reduction to a second portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the iris for use in biometric identification (Step 386).

Further referring to FIG. 38, and in more detail, an image sensor 202 of an image acquisition system 200 captures a view of a scene and a view of an iris in at least one image (382). The image sensor may capture the view of the scene in one image and the view of the iris in another image. In some embodiments, the image sensor may capture the view of the scene and the view of the iris in a single image. For example, the view of the scene may include at least a portion of the iris. The image sensor may capture the view of the scene and the view of the iris in a plurality of images. The image sensor may capture the view of the scene in some images and the view of the iris in other images. The image sensor may capture the view of the scene and the view of the iris in some images. The image sensor may capture two or more images over a period of time. The image sensor may capture two or more images within a short timeframe of each other, e.g., for later comparison or processing. The image sensor may capture two or more images under different conditions, for example, with and without infra-red illumination, or with or without using any type of filter discussed herein.

In some embodiments, the image acquisition system 200 may comprise an iris capturing mode and a picture (e.g., non-iris) capturing mode. The image sensor may capture an image of the view of the scene in picture capturing mode. The image sensor may capture an image of the view of the iris in iris capturing mode. In certain embodiments, the image acquisition system 200 may perform concurrent capture of iris and non-iris imagery in another mode. A user may select a mode for image acquisition, for example, via an application executing on the image acquisition device 200. In some embodiments, the image acquisition system may capture the view of the scene and the view of the iris as separable components within a single image. The image acquisition system may capture the view of the scene and/or the view of the iris using any embodiment and/or combination of the interleaved filter, IR-cut filter, IR-pass filter, and other types of filters described herein.

In some embodiments, the image sensor comprises a plurality of sensor nodes of the image sensor. The image sensor may activate a first subset of the sensor nodes adapted primarily for capturing an image of the iris suitable for biometric identification. The image sensor may activate a second subset of the sensor nodes adapted primarily for capturing a non-iris image. An IR-pass, (G+I) filter (e.g., allowing G+I to pass), or other filter may be applied over a sensor node adapted primarily for capturing an image of the iris. An IR-cut, visible-pass, specific bandpass or color filter may be applied over a sensor node adapted primarily for capturing a non-iris image.

In some embodiments, the image sensor captures at least one image of the iris while illuminating the iris with infra-red illumination. The image sensor may capture at least one image of the iris without infra-red illumination. The image sensor may capture at least one image of the iris upon turning off a visible light illuminator. The image sensor may capture at least one image of the iris using illumination from a screen of the image acquisition system 200. The image sensor may capture at least one image of the iris when the iris is aligned with a portion of the sensor using a mirror of the image acquisition system 200 for guidance. The image sensor may capture at least one image of the iris when the iris is aligned with a portion of the sensor by an operator using a see-through guidance channel and/or markers.

Further referring to (384), an image processing module may apply a level of noise reduction to a first portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the scene. The image acquisition system 200 may apply noise reduction on an image captured by the image sensor. The image acquisition system 200 may apply noise reduction on an image stored in the image acquisition system 200, e.g., in a storage device or buffer. The image acquisition system 200 may apply noise reduction comprising applying an averaging or median function or filter over some pixels of an images, e.g., over a 3×3 pixel window. The image acquisition system 200 may apply noise reduction comprising reduction of one of, or both of time-varying and time-invariant noise from a captured image. The image acquisition system 200 may account for or exclude a known faulty pixel while performing image processing and/or noise reduction. The image acquisition system 200 may apply noise reduction using an image processing module which may include one or more image signal processors 206 and/or other processor 208. The image acquisition system 200 may apply noise reduction by identifying, accounting for and/or compensating for the presence of systematic noise.

In some embodiments, the image processing module may apply noise reduction on an image captured in non-iris capturing mode. The image processing module may apply a level of noise reduction to a portion of an image not for iris biometric identification, e.g., a portion corresponding to an IR-cut filter. The image processing module may apply noise reduction or filtering on a general or non-iris image. The image processing module may generate an image of a general scene that is perceptibly better (e.g., to a human) than an image before noise reduction.

Further referring to (386), the image processing module may apply a reduced level of noise reduction to a second portion of the at least one image to produce an image of the iris for use in biometric identification. In some embodiments, the image processing module may disable noise reduction on an image for use in iris biometric identification. The image processing module may determine that the noise level does not overwhelm the captured iris texture. The image processing module may perform iris biometric identification based on a raw or unprocessed image captured by the image sensor. The image processing module may perform iris biometric identification based on image captured by the image sensor after some processing, e.g., removal of artifacts, sporadic noise and/or systematic noise.

In some embodiments, the image processing module may apply a reduced level of noise reduction to an image for use in iris biometric identification. The image processing module may apply a reduced level of noise reduction to an image captured while in iris capturing mode. The image processing module may perform noise reduction for systematic and/or sporadic noise. The image processing module may disable noise reduction for non-systematic noise. The image processing module may apply a reduced level of noise reduction to a portion of an image extracted for iris biometric identification, e.g., a portion corresponding to an IR-pass filter. The image processing module may apply reduction of systematic noise to a portion of an image extracted for iris biometric identification, e.g., a portion corresponding to an IR-pass filter.

In some embodiments, the image processing module 220 subtracts noise from one image of the iris with noise from another image of the iris. Such subtraction may result in reduced systematic noise and/or sporadic noise. The image processing module 220 may align two images together to perform the subtraction. The image processing module 220 may align two images using common points of reference (e.g., edge of shapes). The image processing module 220 may align two images by using pattern recognition/matching, correlation and/or other algorithms. The image processing module 220 may subtract noise corresponding to overlapping portion of two images. The image processing module 220 may reduce ambient noise in one image using ambient noise from another image. Ambient noise may comprise signals from ambient light or illumination. Ambient noise may comprise artifacts from surrounding illumination sources or reflections of surrounding objects off a surface of the eye. In some embodiments, the image processing module 220 may reduce ambient noise from one image captured in the presence of infra-red illumination, using ambient noise from another image captured without infra-red illumination.

In certain embodiments, the image processing module 220 may recover an infra-red component from one or more (G+I) pixels imaged on a sensor node array. The image processing module 220 may subtract the G component from (G+I) using a G intensity value in a neighboring pixel. In some embodiments, the image processing module 220 may subtract the G component using an estimated G intensity value. The image processing module 220 may use the estimated G intensity value in processing a non-iris (e.g., general scene) portion of an image. In some embodiments, the image processing module 220 may perform gain or brightness control or adjustment on a portion of the at least one image, to produce an image of the iris for use in biometric identification. In some embodiments, the amount of infra-red illumination may be insufficient or sub-optimal, so that gain or brightness control or adjustment can improve iris image quality. In certain embodiments, gain or brightness control or adjustment may be preferable to adding infra-red illuminators, drawing power to provide infra-red illumination, and/or controlling infra-red illumination (e.g., under different conditions). Since infra-red signals are captured by a fraction of the sensor nodes/pixels (e.g., in a RGB(G+I) array), compensation via gain or brightness control or adjustment may be appropriate.

Having described certain embodiments of the methods and systems, it will now become apparent to one of skill in the art that other embodiments incorporating the concepts of the invention may be used. It should be understood that the systems described above may provide multiple ones of any or each of those components and these components may be provided on either a standalone machine or, in some embodiments, on multiple machines in a distributed system. The systems and methods described above may be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture using programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. In addition, the systems and methods described above may be provided as one or more computer-readable programs embodied on or in one or more articles of manufacture. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass code or logic accessible from and embedded in one or more computer-readable devices, firmware, programmable logic, memory devices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, SRAMs, etc.), hardware (e.g., integrated circuit chip, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.), electronic devices, a computer readable non-volatile storage unit (e.g., CD-ROM, floppy disk, hard disk drive, etc.). The article of manufacture may be accessible from a file server providing access to the computer-readable programs via a network transmission line, wireless transmission media, signals propagating through space, radio waves, infrared signals, etc. The article of manufacture may be a flash memory card or a magnetic tape. The article of manufacture includes hardware logic as well as software or programmable code embedded in a computer readable medium that is executed by a processor. In general, the computer-readable programs may be implemented in any programming language, such as LISP, PERL, C, C++, C#, PROLOG, or in any byte code language such as JAVA. The software programs may be stored on or in one or more articles of manufacture as object code. 

What is claimed:
 1. A method of processing images acquired using a single image sensor, comprising: acquiring, by an image sensor, a first image of an object at a predetermined distance with respect to the image sensor, the first image including a time-invariant signal component corresponding to the object, and a random time-varying signal component introduced by one or more noise sources; and processing the first image according to a selection from a first mode and a second mode, comprising: if the first mode is selected, acquiring the first image using a first portion of the image sensor, and processing the first image acquired via the first portion by retaining signals from the time-invariant and time-varying signal components with spatial frequencies at and below a threshold spatial frequency predetermined for iris recognition, wherein the object comprises an iris; and if the second mode is selected, acquiring the first image using a second portion of the image sensor, and processing the first image acquired via the second portion by reducing at least a portion of the signals from the time-invariant and time-varying signal components with spatial frequencies at or below the threshold spatial frequency.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein if the second mode is selected, processing the first image with a frequency-based signal reduction process, or applying an averaging or median function to the first image.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a first type of filter over the first portion of the image sensor and a second type of filter over the second portion of the image sensor.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the image sensor comprises a plurality of sensor nodes, the first portion of the image sensor comprises a first subset of the sensor nodes, and the second portion of the image sensor comprises a second subset of the sensor nodes.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined threshold is the equivalent of 2 line pairs/mm for a modulation transfer function of 60% for the object of a predetermined size and at the predetermined distance with respect to the image sensor.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising subtracting systematic noise from the first image.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising reducing ambient noise in the first image.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising reducing ambient noise from one the first image acquired in the presence of infra-red illumination, using ambient noise from another image acquired without infra-red illumination.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining to deactivate an infra-red-cut (IR-cut) filter for the image sensor when acquiring the first image if the first mode is selected, and to activate the IR-cut filter when acquiring the first image if the second mode is selected.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein acquiring the first image comprises activating a plurality of sensor nodes of the image sensor, the first portion comprising a first subset of the sensor nodes configured primarily for capturing an image of the iris suitable for biometric identification, and the second portion comprising a second subset of the sensor nodes configured primarily for capturing a non-iris image.
 11. An apparatus for processing images acquired using a single image sensor, the apparatus comprising: an image sensor configured to: acquire a first image of an object at a predetermined distance with respect to the image sensor, the first image including a time-invariant signal component corresponding to the object, and a random time-varying signal component introduced by one or more noise sources; and an image processing engine configured to process the first image corresponding to a selection from a first mode and a second mode, the image processing module configured to: if the first mode is selected, process the first image acquired via a first portion of the image sensor by retaining signals from the time-invariant and time-varying signal components with spatial frequencies at and below a threshold spatial frequency predetermined for iris recognition, wherein the object comprises an iris; and if the second mode is selected, process the first image acquired via a second portion of the image sensor by reducing at least a portion of the signals from the time-invariant and time-varying signal components with spatial frequencies at or below the threshold spatial frequency.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image processing module is configured to process the first image with a frequency-based signal reduction process, or apply an averaging or median function to the first image, if the second mode is selected.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a first type of filter over the first portion of the image sensor and a second type of filter over the second portion of the image sensor.
 14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image processing module comprises a plurality of sensor nodes, the first portion of the image sensor comprises a first subset of the sensor nodes, and the second portion of the image sensor comprises a second subset of the sensor nodes.
 15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the predetermined threshold is the equivalent of 2 line pairs/mm for a modulation transfer function of 60% for the object of the predetermined size and at the predetermined distance with respect to the image sensor.
 16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image processing module is further configured to subtract systemic noise from the first image.
 17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image sensor comprises a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) sensor.
 18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image processing module is configured to reduce ambient noise from the first image acquired in the presence of infra-red illumination, using ambient noise from another image acquired without infra-red illumination.
 19. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising an infra-red-cut (IR-cut) filter that is deactivated for the image sensor when acquiring the first image if the first mode is selected, and activated when acquiring the first image if the second mode is selected.
 20. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the image sensor comprises a plurality of sensor nodes, a first subset of the sensor nodes configured primarily for capturing an image of the iris suitable for biometric identification, a second subset of the sensor nodes configured primarily for capturing a non-iris image. 